Hugo Black

“ Hitchcock, 142 U.S. 547, 12 S.Ct. 195, 35 L.Ed. 1110, this Court held that an act not providing 'complete' immunity from prosecution was not broad enough to permit a federal grand jury to compel witnesses to give incriminating testimony. Section 3486 does not provide 'complete' immunity. The original purpose of Congress to compel incriminating testimony has thus been frustrated. [3] It is argued that Congress could not have intended to afford any immunity to criminals unless it was thereby enabled to compel them to testify about their crimes. ”

“ Nor can we hold that the Act bars use of committee testimony in United States courts but not in state courts. The Act forbids use of such evidence 'in any criminal proceeding * * * in any court'. Language could be no plainer. Even if there could be legislative history sufficiently strong to make 'any court' mean United States courts only, there is no such history. The few scraps of legislative history pointed out tend to indicate that Congress was well aware that an ordinary person would read the phrase 'in any court' to include state courts. ”

“ The Fifth Amendment takes care of that without a statute. Consequently, the construction of § 3486 here urged would limit its protection to that already afforded by the Fifth Amendment, leaving the Section with no effect whatever. We reject the contention that Adams' failure to claim a constitutional privilege deprived him of the statutory protection of § 3486. ”